A Kobo Writing Life Update – Mike Tamblyn sent out an email to the Kobo self published authors saying that most of the titles pulled have been put back up so long as the books meet the content guidelines. He goes on to say that some content is never going to be put back up on Kobo and that distribution for that type of content will always be a struggle.

“For those few titles that remain unavailable, some feel that we chose a path of censorship. All I can say is that if your dream is to publish “barely legal” erotica or exploitative rape fantasies, distribution is probably going to be a struggle for you. We aren’t saying you can’t write them. But we don’t feel compelled to sell them. And yes, many titles live in a grey zone with far more shades than the fifty that sold so well in the past year, but that is what makes this all so challenging and so interesting. Many of our readers have no problem with an erotic title in their library next to their romance, literary fiction, investing or high-energy physics books. And we are here for the readers, so erotica stays, a small but interesting part of a multi-million-title catalogue, in all of its grey-shaded glory. My thanks go out to Mark Lefebvre and the whole Kobo Writing Life team and to all of our authors who have been so supportive and understanding in the past two weeks. We will continue to work on reviewing processes and author education about what we can take and what we can’t. It will never be perfect, but our belief continues to be that if we focus on readers and growing our business around them, we will get it right much more often than not.

Sincerely yours,

Michael Tamblyn

Chief Content Officer

Kobo

@mtamblyn”Kobo Cafe

Smashwords Reveals Author Payment Terms for Oyster’s eBook Subscription Service – I’m not sure how this is sustainable in the long term, but Oyster is offering 60% royalties to authors (through Smashwords) as long as 10% of the book is read. 10% is a sample on Amazon. Those are pretty great terms for authors but at $9.99 per month? Sometimes 10% is just the front matter – cover, acknowledgments, table of contents, etc. I could probably burn through 5 samples a night. Nate thinks this is a sign Oyster is dedicated to succeeding. I don’t believe it is a sustainable business model. The Digital Reader

The Percentage Of Music Online That Goes Unpurchased – Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse’s book “Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment” continues to make waves within the arts & entertainment world as people are reading and mining the data she provides. For music, Dr. Elberse argues that 400 albums accounted for 25% of all music sales and a little over 1500 songs out of over eight million available tracks account for 40% of all sales. Dr. Elberse argues that blockbusters are the only way to make money in the arts and entertainment industry.

“rather than spreading resources evenly across product lines (which might seem to be the most effective approach when no one knows for sure which products will catch on) and vigorously trying to save costs in an effort to increase profits, betting heavily on likely blockbusters and spending considerably less on the “also rans” is the surest way to lasting success in show business.”

Simon & Schuster is buying into this philosophy as it spends millions of dollars on self published authors who’ve made a splash often with only one book as it chases after the next 50 Shades. Despite taking a lot of risks on self published authors it is likely only the early ones have panned out for S&S. Business Insider

Instagram Ads Start Next Week And This Is What They’ll Look Like In Your Feed – I’m bringing this up in the news section because over 100 million people use instagram so I have to believe there is some faction of the digital set who read Dear Author that also use Instagram. Anyway, ads are going to appear in your stream. There is a “sponsored” notation in the upper right corner and you can tell Instagram which ads you would like to see or at least the ads you don’t care to see.Consumerist

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

10 Comments

It can’t be that many titles that Kobo is not allowing. Yesterday I clicked on romance, then sorted by price (lowest to highest) and went through the first 1115 pages of books (which just barely got me out of the 99¢ price to a full $1.00). Well over half of the titles listed I wouldn’t necessarily consider to be romance. From the covers (lots of women taking off their underwear) to the titles (Sarah W would love all the keywords…not) they mostly seemed like erotica to me. It seems if the story features sex it gets tagged as romance.

Out of all those books I maybe clicked on 45 to get the full blurb. Ultimately only 4 or 5 were added to my buy list. That excludes all the full-length Avon and Loveswept romances currently priced at 99¢ as I was looking for new-to-me authors with couponable books.

On a side note, so many of the covers were just awful. I know we aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but these were really, really bad.

Pages of books, not books? You have far more stamina than I ever will.

I try not to judge a book by its cover, and yet I end up not even looking at some novels because of what’s on the outside (whether it’s dubious photoshopping or awkward art, ladies dangling lacy undies or a close up of abs rising from low-slung jeans, or just some other, benign formula that’s seen again and again and again). Shame on me, I know. But I wouldn’t want to have some of the more popular cover tropes on something of mine.

Perhaps the tagline appearing on the cover doesn’t meet the so-called content guidelines? “A sex demon and a preacher’s kid? Heaven forbid!” Yeah, the hero is an incubus – a sex demon – but he’s been celibate for over a year because he’s HOPELESSLY IN LOVE WITH THE HEROINE. Just searching for “naughty” keywords isn’t enough, dudes. Some context is required.

I just attempted to re-publish the book to Kobo; we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, Kobo readers, my latest Underbelly Chronicles book is available everywhere ELSE digital books are sold.

Pages of books, not books? You have far more stamina than I ever will.

Yes 1115 pages (10,150 books). At first I was just killing time, but then it became a game of can I get to page 500? 750? Then it was after spending all this time I need to find something…anything to actually buy lol.

I am pretty suspect of that Oyster subscription service and will be looking forward to people trying it out and writing about their experiences. Not too excited yet about what’s available through the subscription. Like Jane, have no idea how they can maintain that business model.

And I have no trouble judging a book by it’s cover. I assume that if so little effort is made on what readers see first than little effort has probably been spent on the pages within. As @library addict: points out, there are an overwhelming number of books to slog through to find ones you might want to read. You don’t need Marketing 101 to know packaging counts.

I assume that if so little effort is made on what readers see first than little effort has probably been spent on the pages within.

Actually, most people who have to make their own because they can’t afford to hire someone don’t just throw something up. They don’t have a good design eye and don’t have the tools/know-how to create a decent cover. They have worked hard to create something they like with their limited resources (e.g., not knowing there is such a thing as stock art, much less be able to find any) and think that what they have done is something to be proud of.

And this is not limited to self-pubs. I could point to quite a few digipubs who think they have the best covers ever when in actuality they’re a crime against eyeballs.

“As @library addict: points out, there are an overwhelming number of books to slog through to find ones you might want to read.”

When I first bought my kindle I spent a fair amount of time looking through Amazon’s lists to find good things to read…. too much time. That is why I am sooooo grateful to Jane, Sarah, Mandi… and other book bloggers for bringing deals and books they feel are great reads to our attention. You, ladies, are a treasure! Thanks!

I find myself baffled by Kobo’s particular mention of “barely legal erotica.” Assuming the definition of “barely legal” is that it is, in fact, legal, why make a distinction between that sort of erotica and any other erotica that deals with legal sexual practices? I just find it silly.

@Jackie Barbosa: Since in visual materials–photos, videos–it’s meant to designate actors and models who look underage but are of legal age, I imagine Kobo’s going for the same stigma here. That from Kobo’s perspective said authors presumably are inviting readers to imagine the characters are underage while the text states that the characters are over 18 or whatever required age. A lot of what we call New Adult titles are also “barely legal,” so I guess the designation comes down to Kobo’s assumption of the author’s intent and assumption of how the reader perceives it in their imagination.

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